Atomic Blonde

7/31/17

Aspiring to be edgy and stylish, this espionage thriller,
adapted from the graphic novel series The Coldest
City, matches sometimes sadistic brawling with exploitative scenes of
aberrant sex. The result is not only degraded but tedious as well. In the weeks
leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a British operative
(Charlize Theron) is dispatched to the still-divided metropolis to retrieve a
vital dossier. She gets unreliable help form the jaded station chief (James
McAvoy) and unexpected aid from a novice French spy (Sofia Boutella) with whom
she rapidly winds up in bed in more ways than one. Told in flashbacks during a
debriefing in which a CIA agent (John Goodman) joins her superiors (Toby Jones
and James Faulkner) as she tells her tale, the plot of director David Leitch's
film is as convoluted as its tacky appeal to its audience's lowest instincts is
straightforward.